atiner's conference paper series his2014-1282 · 2015. 9. 29. · nocilli, m., (2014) "the greek...

ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: LNG2014-1162

1

Athens Institute for Education and Research

ATINER

ATINER's Conference Paper Series

HIS2014-1282

Marzia Nocilli

PhD Student

"La Sapienza" University

Italy

The Greek Military Golpe into the

Italian Communist Newspaper

“L’Unita” Reportages

ATINER CONFERENCE PAPER SERIES No: HIS2014-1282

An Introduction to

ATINER's Conference Paper Series ATINER started to publish this conference papers series in 2012. It includes only the papers submitted for publication after they were presented at one of the conferences organized by our Institute every year. The papers published in the series have not been refereed and are published as they were submitted by the author. The series serves two purposes. First, we want to disseminate the information as fast as possible. Second, by doing so, the authors can receive comments useful to revise their papers before they are considered for publication in one of ATINER's books, following our standard procedures of a blind review. Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos President Athens Institute for Education and Research

This paper should be cited as follows:

Nocilli, M., (2014) "The Greek Military Golpe into the Italian Communist

Newspaper “L’Unita” Reportages”, Athens: ATINER'S Conference Paper

Series, No: HIS2014-1282.

Athens Institute for Education and Research

8 Valaoritou Street, Kolonaki, 10671 Athens, Greece Tel: + 30 210 3634210 Fax: + 30 210 3634209 Email: [email protected] URL: www.atiner.gr URL Conference Papers Series: www.atiner.gr/papers.htm Printed in Athens, Greece by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. All

rights reserved. Reproduction is allowed for non-commercial purposes if the source is

fully acknowledged. ISSN: 2241-2891 18/09/2014


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The Greek Military Golpe into the Italian Communist

Newspaper “L’Unita” Reportages

Marzia Nocilli

PhD Student

"La Sapienza" University

Italy

Abstract

The outbreak of the Greek military coup d'Etat recounted through the

original pages of the newspaper "L'Unità", founded by Antonio Gramsci in

1924. This paper aims at describing both the news arriving in Italy through the

newspaper reportages written by the correspondent Aldo De Jaco, and the

internal reactions of the Italian Government; in more details:

1. The seizure of power by the military in Greece, on April 21st1967: the

tanks in the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki;

2. The arrests of communists, already identified in accordance with the

plan Prometheus (Ierax II), a first investigations on the role played by

C.I.A. in the coup d' Etat, exiles on the Aegean islands, murders,

banishments and tortures on opponents, presence of some Italians among

the deportees;

3. Calls of Greek Communist Party and the clandestine radio "Φωνή της

Αλήθειας” to the struggle against the dictatorship;

4. Martial Courts against the opposition, approved by King Constantine;

5. Demonstrations of solidarity with Greece resistance in Italy and

demonstrations of Greek immigrants who lived in Italy;

6. The Council of Europe calls for an investigation into the destiny of the

Greek parliamentarians;

7. Letter sent by the U.S.S.R Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gromyko,

asking for the grace to Manolis Glezos; 8. Italian Communist Party and

Greek resistance;

9. Expulsion of the international press from Greece.

This work especially studies the relation between the P.C.I. (Italian

Communist Party) and the K.K.E., E.D.A., and P.A.M., in order to focalize

how precious it has been this time to the future arrangements of some

Communist Parties.

The official reactions of the Italian government involved by the scandal of

secret files of S.I.F.A.R. (Italian Military Intelligence Service), it seems to

merge the destinies of the two countries, both into the “N.A.T.O. Plan for the

Europeans”: being alerted to the fight against the danger of a victory of any

Communist organization within the continent.

Keywords:


4

The teardrops which you will see

flowing from our eyes

you should never believe

signs of despair.

They are only promise

promise for Fight1.

This work aims at studying, through the original pages of the Italian

newspaper "L'Unità", the seizure of power by the military junta in Greece on

April 21st 1967: how the news were reported in Italy, the frequency and the

accuracy of the information.

The choice of reading the Greek military coup with the words written on

this newspaper becomes more clear recalling its particular history: it has been

the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.), founded by

Antonio Gramsci in 1924, and the best way to understand how the relations

between some of the Communists parties were going to change; these parties

were obviously admitted into the Third International network, and this is a fast

enough time of new dynamics into that: both "interior" (K.K.E. and E.D.A.)

and "exterior" (Greek Communist Parties and P.C.I.).

"L'Unità" writes on its front page, on April 22nd

1967: "Military Coup

d'Etat in Greece", the title is in bold, capital letters and underlined: "On the eve

of the elections the Court and the reactionary armed forces backed by the U.S.

attempt to strangle democracy". The description given by the journalist, Aldo

De Jaco, who was the newspaper reporter from Greece, immediately portraits

the situation, focusing on the central elements of the Coup d'Etat: the presence

of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the port of Piraeus, the complicity of the King and the

suspension of constitutional rights in order to guarantee the security with

extraordinary "measures" and with the declaration of the martial law.

1Panagoulis A., Promise, written in Military Prisons of Bogiati February, 1972


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As soon as the coup d'Etat takes place, the news Agency T.a.n.jug.1

Immediately informs that the resistance in Athens is struggling against the

military forces: the images of tanks in the streets of the two major Greek cities

will soon be reported by the international press.

The picture of a student’s demonstration in Athens and Thessaloniki

appears on “L'Unità”, just published by the newspaper “Avghi”: the slogan

screamed by the protesters was “ο φασισμός δεν θα περασει”2.

How could the military junta, in few hours, put down the opposition?

The declaration of Kolias, the new Prime Minister, seems to pass over on the

ongoing repression and justify the seizure of power as a necessary act to save

the fate of the country by the anarchist threads and, of course, his words are

colored with the usual paternalistic rhetoric of “the revolution to save the

Nation‟(Ethnosotirios Epanastasi): "The coup was made for the good of the

nation and the new government is on the side of workers"3.

Greece in the 1967 has not yet passed the fractures of the long civil war,

fought after the war until 1949, and is still living as the daughter of the Truman

1T.a.n.jug. (Telegrafska Agencija Nove Jugoslavije) was the Yugoslavian news Agency,

founded on November 5 1943. 2L'Unità, I carri armati a Atene e Salonicco, anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile 1967, p. 3

3L’Unità, “La VI Flotta USA nel Porto del Pireo”, anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile 1967,

p. 3


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Doctrine1

and Prometheus Plan2, who is just a piece of the vast project called

"Stay Behind" (better known as "Gladio"3).

This organisation created a network of espionage and sabotage structures,

made of its own independent sections in the single State, on the occupied

territories of Italy, Greece and Turkey. It was thought to prevent the victory of

any Communist Party in these countries, and to make their transition into the

sphere of influence of the USSR difficult.

1967 is a crucial year in Italy, since then the first of innumerable of

investigations on the works of the S.I.F.A.R. (Italian Military Secret Service)

takes place.

Inside the S.I.F.A.R.'s structure there was the so called Office "R",

“Section Special Studies and Training of Personnel”, responsible for the

general coordination of Gladio operation.

In order to understand the historical value of the presence of the U.S.A. Navy

moored in the Pireaus Port we need not to underestimate the fact that the Greek

generals, as any military forces of every countries participating in the NATO,

were, somehow, dependent on this Organization, therefore, someway, of the

U.S.A..

Some historians claim that, though most Greeks did not believe that the

U.S.A. Secret Service played a role in the coup d'Etat, there was a closer

relation between the C.I.A. and the K.Y.P. (Κεντρική Υπηρεσία Πληροφοριών)

of which Papadopoulos had been a member and that is considered responsible

for the facts of Greece 19674.

The first two documents issued by the military junta, published promptly

by "L'Unità", targeted the suspension of civil rights and freedom:

1 "By virtue of Article n. 91 of the Constitution, me, King of the Hellenes, I decide the suspension of Articles 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18,

29, 95 and 97 of the Constitution in force, in the whole territory of the

1Harry S. Truman, President Harry S. Truman’s address before a joint session of Congress,

march 12nd 1947, so called Truman Doctrine: “The Greek Government has also asked for the

assistance of experienced American administrators, economists and technicians to insure that

the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and

self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration […] The very existence of

the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men,

led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly

along the northern boundaries.[…]Meanwhile, the Greek Government is unable to cope with

the situation. The Greek army is small and poorly equipped. It needs supplies and equipment if

it is to restore the authority of the government throughout Greek territory. Greece must have

assistance if it is to become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy. The United States

must supply that assistance. We have already extended to Greece certain types of relief and

economic aid but these are inadequate. The Greek Government has been operating in an

atmosphere of chaos and extremism. It has made mistakes.”, Yale Law School, Lillian

Goldman Law Library, 20th

Century Documents, New Haven 2

C. L. Sulzberger, Foreign Affairs: Prometheus Unbound; to prevent a Coup rumors of plots

chief of Staff's orders, New York Times, May 3rd

1967, p. 43. 3Philip Agee and Louis Wolf, Dirty Work: the C.I.A. in western Europe, L. Stuart, 1978

4J. Becket, 1970, Tortura in Grecia, Milano, Feltrinelli, p. 44-50


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country, because of the dangers that threaten public order and security

of the country";

2 "On the basis of some regulations of 1912, concerning the conditions of a state of siege, announces the following:

a. It is allowed the arrest and detention of any person regardless of the legal provisions currently in force. The

detention is not subject to any limit of time;

b. Whether the arrest is made for political reasons, any previous measure of bail is canceled and arrests are not

subject to any restriction".

Which "dangers" is the junta talking about?

We claim that they certainly were concerned about the elections that were

meant to be carried out on May 28th

in Greece: the predictions bet on the

victory of Georgios Papandreou (EK, Eνωση Κέντρου) and EDA (Ενιαία

Δημοκρατική Αριστερά) supported by the banned Greek Communist Party

(KKE, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας) from abroad.

The persecution of the Greek Communists, which could be avoided upon

rejection of the communism with a formal declaration, was regulated in

accordance with Law 504, under which many members of the Party were

arrested, killed or preferred exile: in 1955 there were 4,498 political prisoners

and 898 exiles, and the numbers will grow over time. It would be correct to

emphasize that almost two thousand Greek communists were imprisoned under

the dictatorship of Metaxas in 1940.


8

After the end of the Greek Civil War, on March 30 1952, Nikos

Beloyannis was taken from the prison of Kallithea and executed to carry out

the death penalty for ideological offenses, sentenced by the Court Martial1.

Georgios Papadopoulos was a member, among others, of that Court: a member

who had voted against death sentence, but as we all know, after the failed

attack on Dec. 13rd

became the Prime Minister of the military junta. And

moreover, we need to remember that on April 23rd

, the Sunday after the coup,

Georgios Papandreou was going to inaugurate the political campaign in

Thessaloniki.

As the historian Mathiopoulos writes, following the detailed laws against

the communist in the whole country, and before of the junta coup d'Etat, almost

the 90 percent of the population could be defined as “communist”,

This a very important point as, thanks of those special regulations, anyone -in

order to be hired and have a job- needed to get a certification of “political

status” that proved to be not a “dangerous” individual.

As we know the Plan Prometheus' duty, Ierax II in Greece, is to make a list

of people potentially “dangerous”, and in this matter “dangerous” stands for:

suspected to be a communist2 or a left-wingers

3.

S.I.F.A.R. is likely to be responsible of making this kind of list too.

The head of the Parliamentary group of the E.D.A., Iliou, gave an

interview to "L'Unità" on April 19th

1967, in which he declared to feel not so

sure the elections would be held; he was still afraid of the danger of a

dictatorship which, however, he believed would be avoided because of the

1L'Unità, “Beloyannis e altri 3 patrioti assassinati dai fascisti di Atene”, Lunedì 31 marzo

1952, Anno XXIX, n. 2 (Nuova Serie), front page. 2Amnesty International, Report “Situation in Greece”, 27

th of January 1968, in the Appendix at

the end of this work: n. 1 “The Declaration of Loyalty”. 3 Mathiopulos P., 1968, Il colpo dei colonnelli il 21 aprile ad Atene, Milano, Mondadori, p. 14


9

interests of the U.S. and the royal court in Greece. Dictatorship would be

prevented by rigged elections and a new "compromise with the EK, or with the

people who were referable to it who were still talking with those forces1.

What was the reaction, from the front page of "L'Unità" in the Italian

Parliament?

The Italian Communist Party (PCI) without delay asked the Prime Minister

and the Foreign Minister to discuss in order "to know the opinion of the Italian

Government on the coup d'Etat carried out in Greece by the king and the

military caste".

Communist deputies Longo, Amendola , Barca, Miceli, Laconi, Macaluso,

D'Alessio, Tognoni, Busetto, Sandri lead the discussion "to unequivocally

show Italy antifascist solidarity support to democratic forces in Greece".

Sandri's speech urged the government to clarify its opinion: "The duty of the

government to condemn the coup is not determined only by the fact that Italy is

an anti-Fascist Republic, but also by the political weight importance that this

intervention might have against of a country that, like Italy, joined the North

Atlantic Treaty Organization"2.

On the other hand what is "L'Unità" writing of those early hours of the

state of siege in Greece?

The country is isolated, all the borders are closed, the port of Athens is

"forbidden by all airlines," the maritime connections are interrupted. Five

hundred Greek citizens leaving to Greece to celebrate Orthodox Easter and

their plane get stuck in Rome. Six British journalists just landed in Athens –

departed from the Rome Airport of Ciampino – are forced to return back to

Italy3.

The work of most recent historians shows that the first hours of the coup

were crucial to its success: communists and left-wingers from the list

mentioned earlier, who could be against the junta coup, were prosecuted.

1

L'Unità, “Intervista con leader dell'EDA Iliou”, anno XLIL, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile 1967, p.

3 2 L’Unità, “Emozione in Italia”, anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile 1967, p. 1

3L'Unità, “Sospesi I voli aerei dall'Italia per la Grecia”, Anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile

1967, p. 3.


10

About 8.000 people were arrested and 6.844 people were exiled to the

island of Yiaros1.“L'Unità” wrote about the deportation of dissidents on

Aegean Islands: Andreas Papandreu, Manolis Glezos, Kirkos and Theodorakis

were deported or killed?2

The censorship was practised by the junta to stop the diffusion of

information from Greece.

On April 25th

Italy celebrates the Liberation from Nazi-Fascism regime.

In that occasion, in 1967, the Secretary of P.C.I. Enrico Berlinguer wrote

on “L'Unità”: “The tragedy that is occurring in these days in Greece recalls to

all of us and to the other European countries that the Fascism could come back

in its most brutal way”3.

Berlinguer pressed the Italians institutions: solidarity is needed towards the

Greece resistance. The words of the Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, were strongly

criticised; he talked of “anxiety” for what was going on in Greece and forgot to

condemn the fascist coup d'Etat in that country.

Pietro Nenni (the P.S.I. joint the government coalition with D.C. during

Moro Premiership in the 1967), Italian deputy Prime Minister, spoken out very

clearly against the communists: he judged them unable to give a strong help to

the democratic progress. Berlinguer urges not to forget how Italy is not

immune from the risk of corruption, from attempts to limit the constitutional

1K. Stefatos, Engendering the Nation: political persecution and terrorisation against women

dissidents during the Greek military dictatorship (1967-1974), Politics Department,

Goldsmiths, University of London, 2010, p. 141 2L'Unità, Corti Marziali in tutta la Grecia per stroncare ogni opposizione, Centinaia di

comunisti deportati nell'Egeo, Anno XLIV, n. 113, Martedì 25 aprile 1967, p. 1 3L'Unità, “La lotta per la libertà resta indivisibile”, E. Berlinguer, Anno XLIV, n. 114, Martedì

25 aprile 1967, p. 2; full articles in appendices of this work, n. 2


11

rights, from the danger coming by the scandal of S.I.F.A.R. and its secret plan:

an ambush against the democracy.

Meanwhile, in Italy, there were everyday several demonstrations in

solidarity with the Resistance in Greece, organized by political parties, trade

unions, students, workers and by Greeks living in Italy.

Fanfani, the Italian Foreign Ministry, during the sharp debate in the

Senate, criticized the Coup d'Etat, but asking not for an action against it1.

While the U.S.A. officially said the coup was a rape of democracy, the

chief of C.I.A. in Greece, Jack Maury, was cynically asking “How could a

whore be raped?”2

The news that Manolis Glezos, deputy of E.D.A., was still alive but

sentenced to death by a Military Court, persuaded the U.S.S.R. Foreign

Ministry, Andrej Gromyko, to declare that any action that would put a risk on

Glezos' life it would arise soviet and every democratic and peaceful people's

indignation3.

It is interesting to observe the deep relationship between the two countries,

Italy and Greece, in order to understand the future assets of the P.C.I. and the

Greek Communists Parties, inside the Third International fraternity.

K.K.E. has been banned from Greece and it supports the E.D.A. and the

K.K.E. of interior that from 1967 will led up to the P.A.M. (Panhellinic

Antidictatorial Front) and to the youth organisation Rigas Feraios, till the end

of the junta in 1974.

P.C.I. and K.K.E. of interior slowly expressed more criticism of P.C.U.S.

policy, and they gradually tried to depart from it.

K.K.E. of esterior, with all Greek communist who were forced to exile,

remained very faithful executor of sovietic international policies.

As Rosario Bentivegna said: “Then the Greek communist movement was

divided into two parts: to Florakis, that joined the countries of the Warsaw Pact

(which joined the Greek Communists fled from their land after the Civil War)

and the Greek Communist Party of interior, where the activists were old and

new communists remained in Greece, led by Dracopulos, former director of the

Greek Resistance during World War II, who shared the policy of the P.C.I.

condemning the occupation of Czechoslovakia”4.

These few days will be a decisive moment to understand the way two

important Communist Parties of the Mediterranean area will approach their

future relationships with the theory of the Third International network and,

basically, with the U.S.S.R..

1L'Unità, “Serrato dibattito fino a tarda notte al Senato, Le sinistre chiedono la condanna del

colpo di Stato in Grecia e dell'escalation in Vietnam”, Anno XLIV, n. 116, Venerdì 28 aprile

1967, p. 1 2P. Moroni e Konzeptburo, Rote Fabrik, Le parole e la lotta armata: storia vissuta e sinistra

militante in Italia, Germania e Svizzera, Shake Edizioni, Milano, 2009, p. 48. 3L'Unità, “La nota di Gromiko, dalla nostra redazione”, Anno XLIV, n. 117, Sabato 29 aprile

1967, p. 1. 4R. Bentivegna, Senza fare di necessità virtù. Memorie di un antifascista, Einaudi Editore, p.

297


12

Appendices

N. 1: “The Declaration of Loyalty”1

1See note n. 8 for any further information


13

N. 2, “La lotta per la libertà resta indivisibile”, E. Berlinguer1

1See note n. 16 for further information


14

References

Agee P. and Wolf L., Dirty Work: the C.I.A. in western Europe, L. Stuart, 1978.

Amnesty International, Report “Situation in Greece”, 27th of January 1968.

Becket J., 1970, Tortura in Grecia, Milano, Feltrinelli.

Bentivegna R., Senza fare di necessità virtù. Memorie di un antifascista, Einaudi

Editore.

L'Unità, “Beloyannis e altri 3 patrioti assassinati dai fascisti di Atene”, Lunedì 31

marzo 1952, Anno XXIX (Nuova Serie), n. 2 (80)

L’Unità, “La VI Flotta USA nel Porto del Pireo”, anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile

1967.

L'Unità, “Intervista con leader dell'EDA Iliou”, anno XLIL, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile

1967

L’Unità, “Emozione in Italia”, anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22 aprile 1967

L'Unità, “Sospesi I voli aerei dall'Italia per la Grecia”, Anno XLIV, n. 110, Sabato 22

aprile 1967

L'Unità, “La lotta per la libertà resta invisibile”, E. Berlinguer, Anno XLIV, n. 114,

Martedì 25 aprile 1967

L'Unità, Corti Marziali in tutta la Grecia per stroncare ogni opposizione, Centinaia di

comunisti deportati nell'Egeo, Anno XLIV, n. 113, Martedì 25 aprile 1967

L'Unità, “Serrato dibattito fino a tarda notte al Senato, Le sinistre chiedono la

condanna del colpo di Stato in Grecia e dell'escalation in Vietnam”, Anno XLIV,

n. 116, Venerdì 28 aprile 1967

L'Unità, “La nota di Gromiko, dalla nostra redazione”, Anno XLIV, n. 117, Sabato 29

aprile 1967

Mathiopulos P., 1968, Il colpo dei colonnelli il 21 aprile ad Atene, Milano, Mondadori

Moroni P. and Konzeptburo, Rote Fabrik, Le parole e la lotta armata: storia vissuta e

sinistra militante in Italia, Germania e Svizzera, Shake Edizioni, Milano, 2009

Panagoulis A., Promessa, written in Military Prisons of Bogiati February, 1972, in Vi

scrivo da un carcere in Grecia, Milano, Rizzoli, 1974

Moroni P. and Konzeptburo, Rote Fabrik, Le parole e la lotta armata: storia vissuta e

sinistra militante in Italia, Germania e Svizzera, Shake Edizioni, Milano, 2009

Stefatos K., Engendering the Nation: political persecution and terrorisation against

women dissidents during the Greek military dictatorship (1967-1974), Politics

Department, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2010

Sulzberger L. C., Foreign Affairs: Prometheus Unbound; to prevent a Coup rumors of

plots chief of Staff's orders, New York Times, May 3rd

1967

Truman S. Harry, President Harry S. Truman’s address before a joint session of

Congress, march 12nd 1947,Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library,

20th Century Documents, New Haven